[Closed] setting up bars - how do you know its right?

Trial and error and personal preference. I prefer the feel of mine slightly back. Depends on the types of bars though ie sweep etc

don't be stupid

gw - aimed at me or taff? any constructive help or just usal being a bell end?

Whatever feels right, trial and error usually works.

quite obviously aimed at you Cruz.
But I take it back, if you seriously thought Easton managed to print a line on the clamp surface to allow you to align them perfectly for you you are not just being stupid you actually are stupid!

so what are the 1-3 degree markings to be lined up with then?

A late entry for "thread of the year"?

loving the cock like comments but no help from the smart arses (druidh/gw)

[img] [/img]

Erm, you're actually serious?

Does your mum sew your name into your undies too?

Rob, take a multitool, and just check and test on a ride you know well..

Just fettle till it feels right..

Just like setting up suspension..

FFS CH !,

have a think about different frames, forks (wheels/tyres) stems - all these will affect how the bit of the clamp on your stem orientates itself to horizontal. Meaningless in any real sense

to set up the bars, bugger about with 'em a bit and when you find what you like, remember for next time (assuming same frame/.../...)

wtf are the numbers for then?

check Eastons website, they have a huge list of riders, next to your name there will be a number, that's the exact angle you should set them at.

nearly a lol

wtf are the numbers for then?

not that much really.
graphics. that's about it. ignore em, and set your bars at whatever angle just feels right for you. it's that simple.

Sweet baby jesus...

The numbers are there for the same reason there is writing under where the grips go; to make it look 'cooler' in the shop. They might be of use if you changed your bars every day, but you don't, so they aren't.

cruzheckler - Member
wtf are the numbers for then?

So that when you've figured out where you like it, you can easily put it all back together the same way next time you remove them

The lines and markings are for relative guidance, so you know how much adjustment you made last time and will inform how much more / less you need to adjust / correct based on the last change you made.

And what everyone else said 😀

Rob - the idea is that you find your perfect set-up, then take a note of where it is. Next time you make a change, take your bars off or whatever, you can put them back the way they were. It's kinda like the numbers on a seatpost, ken?

wtf are the numbers for then?

I use them to remember the setting before I tweak it, then you can be a bit more accurate than " back a little bit" or "a tad more" if/when you come to readjust them

Round ended scissors for you my lad, you'll thank us one day.

surely the designers have an "ideal" position in relation to the horizontal?

Round ended scissors for you my lad, you'll thank us one day.

😆

crikey - this is coming from the man who "can't understand how stw is sent throu the air to me". Wifi is ****ing easy to understand!!

No 'ideal' as they do not know what other components your using (eg rise and length of stem) or what angles your frame consists of.

They're for guidance only.

Where on that 'Funn' bar in your picture would be 0? However, it does suggest that there is a range of adjustment that would be 'too much' as its off their scale, therefore they have made some assumptions about how much adjustment is too much.

horizon is horizon tho

Wifi is **** easy to understand!!

Is it? I understand basic physics and electronics, but I wouldn't say I understand wifi. Never studied it, so I barely know a thing about it. Not really something you can deduce using common sense either...

What no one has said is that the position will make a big difference to how the bike feels. So play about with them a bit and ride them a bit at different positions, not just five mins - a whole ride.

Too far back and you will be sat upright with a light front end, great for wheelies. Further forward and you will be all over the front - good for weighting the front tire for hard cornering for example.

I recently rode a bike with bars too far back for my liking, but only noticed it when the front tyre washed out on all the corners I normally dont have a problem on.

Changing bar / seat / sag settings will make a big difference to any bike.

😆

The bars are designed to be used in a range of positions, the marks are not important; you can put them at any angle. Lots of bars don't have any marking at all, but more and more these days, this kind of pseudo-techy graphic stuff appears.

I deal with the WiFi thing by imagining a very long invisible wire from Hebden Bridge to my house, then to my phone...

Horizon is always horizontal but the bars have chnages to shapes in more than one plain, therefore they have to start somewhere and base the sweep / other things based on the majority of the population, rotating the bars around will take into account things like people having longer or shorter arms relative to their height.

Yeah...it was the position of my bars that made me crash,honest Guv. :0/
Still quite a few people on the sherry still tonight ain't there?

Many lols in this thread.

As previously mentioned, set them and see. I recently changed my bar setup and can't believe how much better the bike rides!

You mention horizon being horizon... That is fine but you have no piece of equipment on the bike to deduce what the correct horizontal is so the settings on the bar could in no way help. The only way that would be possible is with a spirit level or similar.

As for wifi... I'm sure it's soemthing to do with the devils work!

Whatever's most comfortable, I prefer mine vertical, maybe even slightly forward.. The lines are there so you can get the same angle after you've taken them off for any reason

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Always set mine up with the rise vertical by eye and then go and get on with riding the bike.

slainte ➡ rob

Having thought about this and I really wish I hadn't, I would imagine the 0 degree position must relate to the manufactures default position i.e when the 0 degree position is 'level' the claimed sweep and rise is as they state. Having said that, I think setting them up for yourself is trial by error as others have said. Apologies for the terrible pedantry...

suppose i have given Hora break today

ruffrider thats kind of wheer i was coming from - the 0 degree mark is meant to be the "default" position, and work from there. Again i think i may have articulated myself badly

No, you have made something VERY clear tonight son...... 😉

Ignore all the markings. Set the bars up with the rise at neutral i:e vertical . Then adjust to suit. I like my bars tilted back slightly, something like 1.3457 degrees 😉

The lines are there so you know which side of the bars should point forwards. You'll probably be able to work this out for yourself by trial and error, but it's a quick and easy guide. The other hot tip is to install the bars with the writing facing upwards so it's legible when you're standing - don't get confused and try to set the bars up while standing on your head or, worse still, with the bike inverted as you may end up installing them upside down.

I once inadvertently set up my bars both upside down and back to front. It was only after about six months of riding that, thanks to the advice of a professional bike fit expert, I realised my error. Big thumbs up to Easton for helping folk to avoid these easy to make mistakes.

HTH

BadlyWiredDog - Member
The lines are there so you know which side of the bars should point forwards. You'll probably be able to work this out for yourself by trial and error, but it's a quick and easy guide. The other hot tip is to install the bars with the writing facing upwards so it's legible when you're standing - don't get confused and try to set the bars up while standing on your head or, worse still, with the bike inverted as you may end up installing them upside down.

I once inadvertently set up my bars both upside down and back to front. It was only after about six months of riding that, thanks to the advice of a professional bike fit expert, I realised my error. Big thumbs up to Easton for helping folk to avoid these easy to make mistakes.

HTH

😀 😀

Am I the only person reading this that doesn't quite understand why it was such a stupid question?

Aww phek me. I am laughing like mutley and drying tears from my eyes as i ttype this!

Just use the Infinite Monkey Technique, fanny about with it forever til it feels OK. (if you're ever out for a ride and making an arse of it, take the opportunity to adjust the bars and say "Oh, I think they're .0001 degrees off perfect, no wonder I'm running wide in corners")

A friend of mine set his bars with the rise in line with the stem angle. Tried to claim it was for a racier position. :

Superficial - Member
Am I the only person reading this that doesn't quite understand why it was such a stupid question?

No such thing as a "stupid question" just stupid answers, and when the stw collective smugness kicks in you sure get some stupid, self congratulatory answers - far easier to mock than help isn't it 🙄

stw smug ****ers get together thats all. To be honest even if it was a stupid question it gave them an opportunity to think the are cool/good where as in normal life they mostly look like this:

[img] [/img]

I get that setting up bars once you've got them is trial and error - but how do you figure out which ones, from the bewildering array of rises, angles and sweeps, to get in the first place?

Once you've fitted them and tried them out, they're usually marked from the various things that have been bolted on to them and therefore used - can't imagine any LBS or mail order outlet being happy to take them back in that state.

Once you've fitted them and tried them out, they're usually marked from the various things that have been bolted on to them and therefore used

I guess you could put some plastic film over the bars where controls are fitted, not sure it would work too well with the stem clamp.

I've never even thought of returning bars unless they were wrongly supplied, and to be honest, I reckon almost any bar can be made to fit comfortably if you have a stem or two to choose from.

I reckon almost any bar can be made to fit comfortably if you have a stem or two to choose from.

I dunno about that, you can compensate for rise quite easily, but most of the 'fit' comes from the combination of upsweep and backsweep, and some people s wrists are quite sensitive to it.

Some bars are very 'flat' (ie: very little upsweep, like old Answer Pro-Tapers, where as others like Azonic doublewalls had a really odd upsweep.

Same with backsweep, some are very swept, some are very straight. Most of the time you will get used to what you have but I know some people that get wrist pain with overly swept bars, and others that do with straight bars.

You can only do so much with stems and rotating the bars, for some people a change of bar is the only option.

The problem, as mentioned above is working out what you need! And trying your mates bike out is not always a good test a as you need to ride bars for a while to get over the initial 'it's all differenty!' feeling, and you need to try them on your own bike while keeping other factors constant.

I'm pretty sure that the bar/stem combos I have on my bikes are wrong and could be improved, even though I've tweaked and rotated the angle of the sweep and the stem every which way. My default hand position, if I'm travelling any distance and not doing a technical section or braking, isn't gripping the bars, it's kind of resting the balls(?), the fleshy bottom bit, whatever you call it, of my hands, on the "back" of the grips, the part where my hands/wrists meet the bars.

Do this for any length of time and you get sore hands and arms. I'm sure there are bar and stem combinations out there that would sort this out but the number of possible permutations is so bewildering that I just stick with what I have and put up with it.